Racism and the News

Published: December 21, 1997

Gay Talese accurately identifies the harm done when allegations of racism are recklessly, even cynically, leveled and then prominently reported, though no evidence supports them (Op-Ed, Dec. 17).

However, in the ''Tawana Brawley'' trial, to which he refers, any charge of racism that any defendant makes against the plaintiff's lawyer or the judge is newsworthy specifically because it is so obviously baseless.

Let us remember that the key issue in this trial is whether the defendants acted maliciously when they repeatedly accused the plaintiff of participating in an abduction and rape of then-15-year-old Ms. Brawley. They acted maliciously, the law tells us, if they knew their charges were false or if they made them with reckless disregard of whether they were true or false. In answering that question, the public can reasonably weigh wild charges of racism voiced during the trial.